SSTI Digest

Is a strong university research component critical to local tech-based economic development? Many argue this position, including SSTI (Using Research and Development to Grow State Economies). Using data on royalties, licenses, and job creation figures, others have demonstrated the economic contributions of university R&D. (See for instance, the annual licensing survey from the Association of University Technology Managers.) But can strong research universities contribute more to local technological innovation than large industrial research laboratories – or can communities achieve the same degree of success in building tech-based economies by concentrating resources toward attracting industrial research laboratories?

Arizona In spite of a tight budget resulting in cuts of $600 million, the Business Journal reports the Arizona state legislature has appropriated $3 million to launch implementation of the strategic plan developed by the APNE, the Arizona Partnership for the New Economy (see the Jan. 26, 2001 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for a story on the plan). The funds, to be focused primarily on rural telecom initiatives, will be administered by the Department of Commerce. For more information on APNE see: http://www.commerce.state.az.us/neweconomy/APNE.htm

President Bush has announced his intention to nominate the following people to positions within the federal government that affect state and local tech-based economic development:

President Bush has announced his intention to nominate the following people to positions within the federal government that affect state and local tech-based economic development:

George G. Williams to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. He is presently the President of COLSA Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama. Williams is a graduate of North Carolina State University. Michael W. Wynne to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology. He is presently the Chairman and CEO of the Ixata Group based in San Diego, California. Originally from Florida, Wynne is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, the Air Force Institute of Technology and has received a MBA from the University of Colorado.

Mark Lang, CEO of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania for the past 14 years, has announced his resignation.

Lu Cordova is the new President of the Colorado Technology Incubator.

The Center for Environmental Enterprise (CEE) in South Portland, Maine announced the hiring of a new executive director. John Ferland assumed leadership of CEE in late April.

Due to length considerations, this week's Funding Opportunities Supplement to the SSTI Weekly Digest was sent separately. During the past two weeks, the federal register has announced 15 federally owned inventions that available for licensing from the Army, Navy, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy. The full text of the announcements, including descriptions of the inventions in many cases, can be found at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/060101t.htm

A Special Issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest focusing on the SBIR and STTR programs will be released early next week. The issue will include comments on the SBIR Policy Directive from SSTI and three outside exports and other timely items related to FAST, ROP, and several individual agency programs.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), in partnership with several public and private organizations, has outlined a plan to address telecommunications infrastructure needs across the state. LinkMichigan, released last week, addresses several telecommunications infrastructure issues or concerns that were increasingly facing the public and private sector, including:

With so much attention given to increasing private seed and venture capital activity as a means of growing tech-based economies, one might expect that encouraging and attracting community development venture capital (CDVC) – that is, equity investments and entrepreneurial assistance to meet both profit targets and community development goals – would be a common element of a state or local community’s portfolio of economic development tools. Increasingly it is, according to the first in-depth research on the state of the CDVC industry, released recently by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA). In fact, the study, prepared by Harvard Ph.D candidate Julia Sass Rubin, found more than 50 CDVC providers actively investing or in formation at the beginning of 2000 – up from a mere handful only five years ago. The combined capitalization of these providers at the end of 1999 was $300 million.

San Jose, Austin, and San Francisco received top honors in the 3rd Annual Forbes-Milken Institute Best Places Ranking. San Jose and San Francisco raced to the top of the list from 29th and 42th place respectively in 1999. Completing the top ten metro areas in 2000 are: Boulder, CO; Dallas, TX; Santa Rosa, CA; Boise City, ID; San Diego, CA; Phoenix-Mesa, AZ; and Oakland, CA. The top metro area east of the Mississippi River, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, came in 13th. The Forbes-Milken Institute project ranked the top 200 large metro areas based on a weighted scoring of the eight data categories listed below.

Colorado The Governor’s Office of Innovation and Technology and the state’s Science and Technology Commission have teamed up to create the Colorado Technology Alliance to provide tech business recruitment information and assistance. According to a recent Pueblo Chieftain article, the Alliance will prepare a clearinghouse website and a 120-page resource magazine. Local and regional information for the website will be administered and maintained by local tech-based economic development officials. Covington, Kentucky